Around the World With Uncle Moose: Days 1-5: Kuala Lumpur, Brunei, and Manilla

Days 1-2: RDU to Kuala Lumpur

We began with a 7:00AM flight from RDU to Washington Dulles, where we connected to a noon flight from Dulles to Tokyo. We arrived in Tokyo at about 3:00PM the next day, and connected to a 5:00PM flight to Kuala Lumpur, which arrived in Kuala Lumpur about midnight, which was noon the next day back home--in other words, 24 hours of flying.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to schedule an overnight at the airport hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which was very nice.

This is actually inside the Kuala Lumpur airport

Lobby of the Sama Sama Hotel, at the Kuala Lumpur airport

Days 3-4: Kuala Lumpur to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

The next day we flew to Brunei on Royal Brunei Airlines. Brunei is a country about the size of Connecticut on the island of Borneo (which it shares with Indonesia and Malaysia). They have a lot of oil and gas offshore, and the Sultan of Brunei is one of the richest people in the world. However, the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, is nothing like Dubai or Qatar--aside from the Sultan's palace and a couple of mosques, it's not very impressive. Brunei is also a strict Muslim country--no alcohol, and during Ramadan (which was while we were there), restaurants can't serve food during daylight.

Part of the livery of Royal Brunei Airlines

Reading up on the news from Brunei.

Some Indonesian islands on the way to Brunei

The outskirts of Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei

In the Brunei Airport

Driving into Bandar Seri Begawan from the airport

Apartments in Bandar Seri Begawan

We arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan at about 4:00 in the afternoon and took a taxi to the Radisson Hotel.

Radisson Hotel

As I mentioned, restaurants couldn't serve food during daylight, but that wasn't a big issue, since the sun set at about 6:30. So, after a rest, we walked to the center of town, which was about a half a mile from the hotel. The city is pretty small (about 250,000 in the metropolitan area).

View from the hotel--Royal Regalia Museum in the center. Notice the rush hour traffic.

Outdoor food stalls near the hotel

We actually had trouble finding a place to eat--not because of Ramadan, but because there aren't that many restaurants in Bandar Seri Begawan. We finally found a seafood place on the river that was serving a buffet (as apparently all restaurants do during Ramadan).

The Rendezvous Seafood Restaurant

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, through a mostly deserted city.

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Another view of the mosque

Hot action in downtown Bandar Seri Begawan

Day 4: Bandar Seri Begawan

Today we had arranged for a tour of the city from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. That turned out to be plenty of time since it was Friday, which is the Muslim "sabbath" and a lot of stuff was closed.

Morning rush hour in front of the hotel

Some commercial buildings

Our first stop was the Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, which is the largest mosque in Brunei. It was built by the Sultan in 1994 to mark the 25th year of his reign. Unfortunately, since it was Friday, we couldn't go in.

We then made a brief stop along the banks of the Brunei River, to check for crocodiles.

Next was a stop in front of the Istana Nurul Iman, the Royal Palace, and home of the Sultan. The palace contains 1,788 rooms, which includes 257 bathrooms, and is considered to be the largest residential palace. Unfortunately, the front gate was about all we could see.

Front gate of the Royal Palace

We then proceeded back downtown, to the Arts and Handicrafts Center.

More commercial buildings

Downtown Bandar Seri Begawan, such as it is

Another view of the downtown riverfront. Not exactly Dubai.

Arts and Handicrafts Center

After touring the Arts and Handicrafts center, we went to the Royal Regalia Museum. The museum is basically a holding place for all of the gifts that have been given to the Sultan by foreign governments. There were also a lot of crowns, jewelry, and assorted other crap that the Sultan has accumulated. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside the museum, except the lobby.

Exterior of the Royal Regalia Museum

Inside the lobby of the Royal Regalia Museum

Next we went to the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, which was built in 1958. The main dome is covered in pure gold. Again, we couldn't go in because it was Friday, but got a nice view of the exterior.

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

Another view of the mosque

Our last stop was the water village of Kampong Ayer, where all of the buildings are over the water on stilts. According to Wikipedia, people have lived there for over 1,300 years, and the current population is about 36,000.

Sungai Kebun Bridge (still under construction) in back of part of Kampong Ayer

We took this boat to visit Kampong Ayer

There are actually a couple mosques in the water village. I don't know if they are on stilts.

A house in Kampong Ayer

We visited one of the floating houses, which had a big room where they served us Bruneian (if that's a word) snacks and tea.

View from the house we visited

Kitchen of the house we visited

A school in the water village

The tour ended at 1:00, and we returned to the hotel. Since restaurants couldn't serve food (in the restaurant) in daylight hours during Ramadan, we had to order takeout from the hotel restaurant and eat it in the room. We had a late afternoon flight, so after we ate, we then went from the hotel to the airport.

Some apartments in Bandar Seri Begawan

Departing Brunei

So, we wound up spending a little over 24 hours in Brunei, which was moderately interesting, and accomplished the goal of adding another country.

Days 5: Manila, Philippines

Our flight to Manila on Royal Brunei Airlines took about 2 hours. The good news is that we were upgraded to first class. The bad news is that Royal Brunei doesn't serve alcohol, but the extra legroom was nice.

Metropolitan Manila is a sprawling city of about 12,000,000, and is the most densely populated city in the world. We stayed at the Hyatt City of Dreams, which is part of a big shopping and casino complex called (oddly enough) the City of Dreams.

City of Dreams--The Hyatt is on the left side

Entrance to the casino from the hotel

About a week before we arrived, a disgruntled gambler shot 37 people at a casino a couple of miles from the Hyatt. As a result, security was a bit tight--we had to go through metal detectors, and there were several military types toting automatic weapons in the hotel lobby. Other than that, it was really nice.

A bit of security at the hotel

Breakfast buffet at the hotel

We only had one day in Manila, so we booked a full day tour of the city. We were picked up at the hotel, and traveled to another part of the city (which has a million parts) to pick up another passenger. It was already brutally hot and humid.

Sweating in Manila

The streets in Manila are filled with "jeepneys" which are military jeeps that have been converted to buses.

A couple of Jeepneys (in back of the motorcycle)

An upscale house in the Pasay district

More typical housing

Our first stop was the American Cemetery, which is in a very modern district with lots of high-rises. The cemetery has about 17,000 graves.

A mosaic map in the memorial building

Lists of the deceased in the memorial building

Another mosaic in the memorial building

Graves and apartments/condos

From the cemetery, we drove to an area on the outskirts of Manila, to the site where Philippine independence from Spain was declared in 1898. The housing along the route wasn't too impressive.

Housing on the outskirts of Manila

At the independence site--the umbrellas were for shade, not rain

More housing on the outskirts

On the way back to central Manila, we visited a Jeepney factory, where they convert Jeeps to Jeepneys.

At the Jeepney factory

A Jeepney under construction

Street life in Manila

Lots of huge billboards everywhere

We stopped for lunch at a floating restaurant. It was hot.

At the restaurant

More street scenes in Manila

After lunch, we headed for central Manila. Our first stop was Paco Park, a part built on the site of the old municipal cemetery.

Paco Park

Another view of Paco Park

Not that KKK

Next, we headed to Intramuros, the old walled city of Manila, dating from the 16th century. Unfortunately, most of Intramuros (and Manila in general) was bombed flat during World War II, so there's not much left of the original buildings.